The platform identified roughly 200,000 suspected inauthentic accounts, with a subset specifically targeting American sentiment on AI data centers and energy policy.
X’s Safety team has identified a bot farm of approximately 200,000 suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts operating on the platform, with around 200 of those accounts laser-focused on shaping American public opinion about AI infrastructure and electricity costs.
The campaign reportedly deployed AI-generated cartoons portraying data center operators as greedy corporations profiting at the expense of ordinary households.
What the bot network actually did #
The roughly 200 accounts targeting US AI policy crafted English-language content designed to look like it came from concerned American citizens, framing data centers as the reason your electricity bill keeps climbing.
X has stated it suspends accounts that violate its Authenticity policy. The campaign itself reportedly ran from late 2025 into early 2026, though its organic engagement was limited.
OpenAI published a threat intelligence report in June 2026 identifying what it called a “Data Center Bandwagon” cluster of accounts. That report traced the operation to a private Chinese tech firm that was apparently using ChatGPT to generate English-language content while posing as American users.
The real debate these bots were trying to exploit #
Data centers are projected to consume roughly 11.8% of US electricity by 2030, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Regional power grids in several areas have experienced strain, and some utility customers have seen rate hikes linked to the surge in data center demand.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has claimed that foreign actors are actively working to manufacture and deepen these domestic political divisions around AI. The X disclosure lends concrete evidence to that assertion.
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